Mark Sanford: Yes, I Lied To My Staff, Okay?
A quick postscript to the Mark Sanford meltdown: Sanford’s office just sent over a post-presser statement clarifying that, yes, he’s admitting that he lied to his staff about where he was going.
It wasn’t quite clear from his presser if he was copping to having fibbed to his staff. And this was perhaps one of the most important aspects of this mess, because his disappearance was a total abdication of his gubernatorial responsibilities.
But now Sanford has a new statement clarifying this point:
“I apologize to my staff. I misled them about my whereabouts, and as a result the people of South Carolina believed something that wasn’t true. I want to make absolutely clear that over the past two days at no time did anyone on my staff intentionally relay false information to other state officials or the public at large. What they’ve said over the past two days they believed to be true, and I’m sorry to them for putting them in this position.”
In case you were wondering. A final burst of candor.
Update: Zachary Roth asks a good question: If he did lie to his staff, “how did an aide come to be at the Atlanta airport this morning to meet the governor when he got off the plane?”
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So he went to Argentina to break it off with his girlfriend? He wanted closure???
Like Satan wanted closure with Saddam?
A politician having an affair??? Say it’s not so!
Since he went to Argentina less than two weeks after his wife told him she wanted a separation, and he also stayed there five days, and might have stayed longer if people hadnn’t started noticing he was misisng, it is more likely that he just went there to see her, and is only now *saying* he intended to break it off, although maybe he’s going to do that now. Clearly, at a minimum, he’s conflicted. You do have to feel a little sorry for him. You do have to wonder about his general integrity about issues, althoiugh actually you had to wonder about that already. He was really posturing about the bailout finds.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
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